


Dance the Night Away

by Golbez



Category: Final Fantasy IV
Genre: Alternate Universe, Community: spook_me, Day of the Dead, Gen, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-27
Updated: 2011-10-27
Packaged: 2017-10-25 00:02:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/269381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golbez/pseuds/Golbez
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After hours of fighting for their survival, Kain and Anna face the undead head-on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dance the Night Away

**Author's Note:**

> ...I'm really not much of a horror writer. This started turning more and more into drama, until I finally gave in and just let that happen.

The stench of death and decay, combined with something that sounded like flesh slamming against wood, roused him from his slumber. Kain sprang to his feet, grabbing his spear from nearby. As he blinked and cleared his vision, he became aware of Anna standing as far back as she could, both of her fans unfolded. Her gaze was firmly set on the barricaded door.

He noticed for the first time how gaunt she looked, though she had eaten her share of food earlier in the night. Yet, in only a few hours, she appeared to have gained several years in age. Kain had a feeling he looked just as bad, perhaps even worse.

"It won't take them much longer now," said Anna, voice hoarse and raspy. She snapped one of the fans shut, and gestured at the barricade. "Jump, the moment they break in. I'll distract them."

Allowing a woman to essentially sacrifice herself for him didn't sit too well with the Dragoon, but he knew better to argue. Anna could hold her own against many a monster - she had proven this several times over earlier in the night. There _was_ one thing that particularly bothered him though. Kain knew well enough that Anna possessed some sort of mental ability, and judging by how shaken she had become earlier during the fights...he had a feeling there was more going on than she was letting him know.

"Ready!" said Anna, just as the sound of splintering wood filled the air.

The barricade seemed to explode, and Kain jumped, spear ready.

Anna charged just as the crowd of rotten flesh and disease stricken mass surged into the room. She spun, and danced her way through them, fans cutting cleanly through the undead creatures. She faltered once, as the stench hit her, but she held her breath and rushed on.

Kain allowed himself only a moment's pause as he fought down the urge to drop and gag. He exhaled as he began to fall, willing himself to simply stop breathing for even a moment.

He impaled several of the creatures with his spear, scattering the rest and clearing a considerable circle around Anna. He bounced back from the creatures, landing before her.

She threw her fans, slicing through several before the fans came spinning back. She caught them effortlessly. Kain readied himself for another jump--

The creatures stopped moving. Kain only had the time to start looking surprised when they began to _scream_.

***

The scream rose from the creatures as one, forcing Anna to her knees. It pierced her, shocking her into lowering all her mental defenses, threatening to tear her apart.

Kain spun around, rushing to her aid. This momentary cease in his guard was enough time for the dead creatures to take him down. They surged forward as one, overpowering him and sending him to his knees. He disappeared under the monsters moments later.

Anna fought the urge to scream herself. She tightened her grip on her fans until her knuckles turned white. Yet, in the face of this wretched mass, she felt nothing at all. Only a deep-seated emptiness within her, which had begun to consume her heart and soul, threatening to eat away everything she had ever been.

Time slowed for her, and she watched as the monsters came towards her.

"For Kain," whispered Anna, and she began to dance.

She fell into rhythm immediately, going through the far-too-familiar stances of a dance for the fallen. Music began to flow through her mind, as though a stem of whisperweed had grown there.

Anna danced, and everything around her melted away. The stench of death dissolved into a fresh, clean breeze. The dark and dank cave faded away into memory, into a place with a warm flame and cozy, orange-coated walls. The noise of murderous intent became softer and softer, replaced by the pleasant chatter of both travelers and natives.

She danced, and danced, vaguely aware of the gaze of the young man in the corner. She spun, and the music from the flutes and tambourines were overcome by the melody of a lute in the hands of a skilled musician.

She caught sight of the young man with the lute through a gap in the whirlwind of red that was her hair, and she slowed her pace, following the rise and fall of his lute’s melody. She listened as she twirled, and heard him change the music ever so slightly, as though to match her instead.

Then the music began to swell, and she began to spin in place. She spun and spun, the world around her disappearing once more.

An overwhelming sorrow filled her, just as the music came to a sudden stop. She was back in the cave, and all around her were the dead creatures.

They were standing in a circle around her, unmoving, yet at the same time bodies shaking. Some sported gashes where the magic of her fans had cut them, others were kneeling on the floor. The room was strangely silent, save for the faint rattling of bones that came with the shudders they all now sported.

Anna dared not breathe.

Moments passed, and still they did not move. She hesitated, silently observing the nearest ones. It was then she realized why they had stopped.

She could not help but join in, and, together with the dead, she wept for all that she had ever lost.

***

The next time Kain awoke, the dead creatures were gone, as was Anna.

He lay where he had woken for some time, listening for the howl of an angry spectre, or the tell-tale rattle of a skeleton's bones. None came. There were no unearthly moans, no growls from the shadows, no bloodcurdling screams.

They were all gone, and Anna with them. Pieces of torn yellow cloth, scattered where she had fought, were the only signs that she had even been here with him.

Daybreak. Kain wasn't sure how long he had been unconscious, but it had still been dark out when the creatures had broken in. Now, golden light, somehow warm and uninviting at the same time, crept through the entrance to the cave. Had Anna vanquished the creatures on her own?

He searched for her, growing bold enough to climb to the summit now that he was on his own. He was greeted by the sight of a crystal-formed shrine, but the mirror-like walls sent chills down his spine when he peered inside, so he left it alone. Anna had not been inside, and there had been no signs anyway of anyone having been there for a while.

He trekked down the mountain, taking a more dangerous path, and still there was no sign of her or the dead creatures. Still, he kept his spear at the ready throughout his search, almost hoping he would have to fight to save her.

As he neared the foot of the mountain by midday, exhaustion had begun to creep up on him, and he could barely carry his spear, let alone scour the entire mountain again. Wherever Anna was, Kain hoped she was getting some rest, after all, she had stayed awake with him.

He could see the lush forest just ahead of him, inviting him to leave the accursed mountain. He couldn't do that, could he? Kain turned, looking up at Mt. Ordeals in all its gray and lifeless splendor.

The only living creature to have graced his presence for a long time was now with the dead.

And for the first time since his arrival at Mt. Ordeals a year ago, Kain felt truly alone.


End file.
